2017 Hurricane Irma

Hurricane Irma claimed over 100 lives, injured many more and destroyed homes, schools, and hospitals. Charities are on the ground working on rebuilding efforts and providing essential relief such as food, clean water, shelter, and medical services.

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Hurricane Irma is the strongest storm ever recorded on the Atlantic. It has left a path of destruction, reducing communities to rubble, cutting off access to food and medical supplies, with a climbing death toll. Winds have been reported at 185 miles per hour and caused catastrophic damage in Barbuda, Saint Barthélemy, Saint Martin, Anguilla, and the Virgin Islands and severe damage in the United States and other parts of the Caribbean.

Relief efforts will continue for months as some areas have been reduced to rubble – hospitals, schools and homes will need rebuilding and with roadways washed out, emergency food and medical services will need to continue to be flown in. Canadian charities are on the ground providing essentials such as food and clean water, shelter and medical services to those already affected by the disaster.

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Hurricane Irma is continuing to tear a deadly path through the Caribbean, causing widespread destruction and reducing buildings to rubble, on a track that could lead to a catastrophic strike on Florida. The American state is bracing for the arrival of the Atlantic’s most deadly storm in history, which has already left at least 13 people dead, with thousands homeless. Emergency chiefs warn it will have a “truly devastating”

The most powerful Atlantic Ocean hurricane in recorded history has killed at least 14 people after tearing through the Caribbean, and is now on course to “devastate the United States”, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has warned. Hurricane Irma is now heading towards Florida, which is on high alert and has ordered half a million people to evacuate. The Carolinas and Georgia have also declared emergencies. The Category

Meteorologists are now predicting that Miami will bear the brunt of Hurricane Irma when it hits the mainland Parts of the Georgia coast, Miami and the entirety of the Florida Keys are now under mandatory evacuation Evacuations went into effect in the Florida Keys on Wednesday and in Miami on Thursday amid a mass exodus Georgia ordered the evacuation of the state’s coastal areas

The most powerful Atlantic Ocean storm in recorded history is sweeping across the Caribbean leaving destruction in its wake. Hurricane Irma howled past Puerto Rico on Wednesday after thrashing several smaller islands with tree-snapping winds, drenching rains and pounding surf on a collision course with Florida. The tiny island of Barbuda, which has a population of 1,800, and was devastated. Its Prime Minister Gaston Browne said:

Hurricane Irma started “pummelling” the Turks and Caicos islands Thursday evening with sustained winds of 280 km/h, the National Hurricane Center said. Earlier in the day, French, British and Dutch rescuers rushed aid to a string of Caribbean islands devastated by the hurricane, which left at least 12 dead and thousands homeless. Warships and military planes were dispatched to the stricken zone with food, water and troops after

Hurricane Irma is continuing to tear a deadly path through the Caribbean, causing widespread destruction and reducing buildings to rubble, on a track that could lead to a catastrophic strike on Florida.

The American state is bracing for the arrival of the Atlantic’s most deadly storm in history, which has already left at least 13 people dead, with thousands homeless. Emergency chiefs warn it will have a “truly devastating” impact on the US.

Late on Thursday, the National Hurricane Center issued the first hurricane warning for the Keys and parts of South Florida, including some of the Miami metropolitan area of 6 million people. It added a storm surge warning and extended watch areas along the east and west coasts.

The United Nations estimates that up to 37 million people could be affected by the category five hurricane, which took a swipe at the British territory of Turks and Caicos Islands on Thursday night.

It was the first time the territory had experienced a Category 5 storm, said Virginia Clerveaux, director of Disaster Management and Emergencies.

Irma was about 55 miles (85 km) south of Great Inagua Island and is expected to bring 20-foot (6-m) storm surges to the Bahamas, before moving to Cuba and plowing into southern Florida as a very powerful Category 4 on Sunday, with storm surges and flooding due to begin within the next 48 hours.

Florida is braced for a possible direct hit from as early as Friday night, with forecasters predicting it could strike the entire Atlantic coast and rage into South Carolina and Georgia, where a mandatory evacuation has been ordered.

Irma path – live updates: At least 19 dead in Caribbean as hurricane on course to ‘devastate US’

The most powerful Atlantic Ocean hurricane in recorded history has killed at least 14 people after tearing through the Caribbean, and is now on course to “devastate the United States”, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has warned.

Hurricane Irma is now heading towards Florida, which is on high alert and has ordered half a million people to evacuate. The Carolinas and Georgia have also declared emergencies.

The Category 5 storm, had maximum sustained wind speeds of 185mph on Thursday, according to the US National Hurricane Centre.

It was downgraded to a Category 4 with 150mph winds on Friday but remains “extremely dangerous.”

The storm, of “nuclear” ferocity, has churned along a path through the Lesser Antilles and Puerto Rico, and towards the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Cuba. Residents of Florida are preparing for a potential hit over the weekend. Irma’s eye passed directly over the island of Barbuda, meaning its inhabitants were twice subjected to the fastest winds.

The tiny island of Barbuda, which has a population of 1,800, and was devastated.

Its Prime Minister Gaston Browne said: “Barbuda is literally rubble. The entire housing stock was damaged. It is just a total devastation.”

His government estimated destruction on Barbuda was “upwards of 90 per cent”.

As Irma hit the Caribbean, with winds of 185mph that sounded like a freight train, buildings were destroyed and hotels flooded.

The eye of Irma was passing just north of Puerto Rico late on Wednesday, buffeting the U.S. island territory’s capital, San Juan, with heavy downpours and strong winds that scattered tree limbs across roadways.

“The winds that we are experiencing right now are like nothing we have experienced before,” Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello told CNN. “We expect a lot of damage, perhaps not as much as was seen in Barbuda.”

British tourists were evacuated from the region or hunkered down amid warnings the storm was “potentially catastrophic”. So far seven deaths have been reported- six in St Martin and one, a two-year-old child, in Barbuda

As the Caribbean takes stock of the trail of devastation, Florida is preparing for a potential direct strike. The eye of the hurricane passed over Barbuda at around 1.47am (5.47am BST).

Hurricane Irma slams Turks and Caicos, with death and destruction in its wake

Hurricane Irma started “pummelling” the Turks and Caicos islands Thursday evening with sustained winds of 280 km/h, the National Hurricane Center said.

Earlier in the day, French, British and Dutch rescuers rushed aid to a string of Caribbean islands devastated by the hurricane, which left at least 12 dead and thousands homeless.

Warships and military planes were dispatched to the stricken zone with food, water and troops after the fearsome Category 5 storm smashed homes, schools and roads.

Hundreds of kilometres to the northwest, Florida braced for the onslaught, with forecasters warning Irma could slam headlong into the Miami metropolitan area of six million people, punish the entire length of the state’s Atlantic coast and push on into Georgia and South Carolina.

Officials issued mandatory evacuation orders for tens of thousands of people in the Florida Keys and in exposed or low-lying parts of the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area as Irma closed in with winds of 280 km/h.

The hurricane centre said Irma will move toward the Bahamas this evening and then closer to the north coast of Cuba in the next day or so.

As the storm arrived in Turks and Caicos, Gov. John Freeman told CBC News the wind was a making “tremendous noise,” tearing off roofs and tossing cars, but the extent of the damage wouldn’t be known until Irma passes.

“These very beautiful islands, which many Canadians come to each year to holiday, are very low lying, they are vulnerable,” Freeman said. “We have to look at not just the wind speed, but the sea surge, and the sea surge will produce inundation and flooding.”

Freeman said many people had flown out of the country before Irma hit, but some tourists chose to stay at hotels.

“They’ve been built knowing the hurricane challenges, and we would hope and expect within those hotels, they should be safe,” he said.

Skies over the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, were still clear just after noon local time. About a million people were without power in Puerto Rico after Irma sideswiped the island, but there were no immediate reports of large-scale casualties.